homemade treasures

Gorgeous dress that Nene made for you...

And in other news, you have truly entered the world of "babble" now.  Your vocabulary is far reaching, we are just unsure what language you are speaking, nevertheless it is a beautiful one.  You have been such a fun little character to be around over the past few days.

Today you had an excellent day with your Dadda eating mint chip icecream at the beach while Mumma had to go to work :(

visit to coffs

Well you bounced back from your recent illness and it was off to Coffs for you and me for a long weekend.  Your favourite parts of the visit?  Oh so many:
- Following Pardy into the kitchen, down the hall, out to the garden, well actually wherever he went you followed and were indulged with lots of carrying around and pointing out the wonders of all things Nene and Pardy.
- The pop-up tunnel was a hit - and a bargain too, spotted by Nene for $2 at the school fete.  Play tent included too!
- Feeding the lizard, a rather large monitor that has become dependent on banana bits for for breakfast and dinner served by Pardy.
- The fairy garden.  You were intrigued and would proudly point it out to anyone who would watch.  Pardy taught you to "shhh - be quiet" around the fairies.
- The pool next to the beach was a hit until you spotted the playground at Nautilus and demanded to test out the fun-o-meter of this particular playground.
- Aunty Hayley was a hit too after a few false starts (you are never in a great mood when you've just woken from your nap).
- The little stroller that Nene and Pardy salvaged from the upstairs neighbour.
- The mini strawberry chocolate ice cream cones that seemed to become your regular morning tea during our holiday.

All in all it was a great weekend and you lapped up to the love with delight.  But the biggest smile was of course when we were met by Dadda at the airport on Monday morning.

Pointing out the fairies

Pointing out the fairies to Pardy

Helping Pardy weed in the garden

Pondering life with Nene

Crawling through the tunnel

Enjoying a chocolate covered strawberry cone

working mumma

After over 12 months out of the workforce today was my first day back and all I can really say is I'm soooooooooooooooo tired!  After an early start taking you to your swim lesson, then a full day of filling my brain with things other than thoughts of you, I am ready to drop!  Luckily you had a great day with your Nene so I didn't have to worry about you.  I was even lucky enough to get a "today's pic" emailed to me at work.  Tomorrow it's back to Vieve's for you so we'll see how you go.  Goodnight from very tired mummy.

it's my party...

Hello birthday girl!  We wrapped up a wonderful week of you turning 1 (OMG!!!) with a party attended by 40 of your closest family and friends on Saturday.  We had planned a fabulous picnic down at Bronte Park but the threat of rain on Saturday meant a chance of venue to Grandpa and Nonna's apartment.  You had a great time picnic-ing on the rug in their loungeroom with your mates Olive, Matilda, Marilla, & Henry.  You also enjoyed zooming around the legs of guests on your quest to stride from the lounge to the kitchen and back looking for you dadda, mamma, and - well, anyone that noticed how clever you were at walking.  There was plenty of party food and mummy got creative with some ladybug and flower cupcakes and your Nene made a fantastic butterfly cake (thanks to the classic Womens Weekly Cake book).  It's lovely to celebrate having you in our lives for a year and heart-warming to see all the people that love you gathering together.  We look forward to seeing how you grow and change over the next year.

Pic of the spread below - more photos to come after I hunt them down from your Uncle Joel who was the unofficial photographer of the day.

happy birthday to you!

Hello gorgeous girl - it's your first birthday!  Well not your very first as that was last year, but the anniversary of your first year.  You had a lovely day as Nene and Pardy came to stay and you LOVED LOVED LOVED playing with them, following Pardy around, and jumping all over their bed.  You got lots of gifts and got spoilt with cards, cuddles, love and smiles from your family all day long.  After a hasty birthday cake and song minutes before bed you crashed without a peep.  Happy birthday my gorgeous little monkey.  Lotsa love xxxxx

today's pic

So ever since your Daddy went back to work after you were born, he asked me to take a photo of you each day he was at work and email it to him at some stage in the day so he didn't feel like he was missing out so much.  This has become the 'today's pic' email, which now goes out not only to your Daddy, but also to your Nene, your great grandparents Pa & Maggie, and your Aunty Hayley, who all asked to be put on the mailing list after learning about this daily task.

In the beginning it was very hard to find the time and energy to take out the camera, take the photo, upload to the computer, export into a sendable file, and attach to the email.  But I'm glad I persevered, as we have pictures of you from almost every day of your life, and in my world pictures = memories.  It's now become second-nature to me to do the whole routine, that's not the hard part.  Now the hard part of each 'today's pic' is getting you to sit still long enough to take a decent photo!  Today's wasn't so great and I was a little out of practice since I didn't send the email for the last 3 weeks when your Daddy was home.  So I'm not going to attach it here.  But I will show you some other ones from the year that I think were pretty special.  

April 19 - first swim lesson

May 26 - master of the roll

June 17 - happy to be home

August 5 - so clever standing